Saturday, October 28, 2006

I received an email from Mr. Doggity (who really should have his own blog...or at least a guest spot here) over night, and wanted to share it with my audience.

Carl...Please deal with Cheney.

This torture thing is insane. Dick Cheney does not represent me, and does not represent any America I -- a former Marine -- recognize or ever fought for.

I have never said this before. I have stated some outrageous things before in order to get a rise, but this time I'm serious.

Dick Cheney is a bona fide war criminal. A war criminal on the level of Milosevic, Taylor, Tojo and Donitz. Nobody who knows anything about history could possibly make a case now that Cheney should not be included in this august assembly.

I would support the Hague calling Dick Cheney before a tribunal today. Not as a political vendetta, but in a real effort to restore what tiny shreds remain of America's integrity. I do not support the death penalty for anyone, including Cheney. But the noble and respectful process of impeachment is far too decent for him.

History will place him on the list of tyrants, only slightly less deplorable than Hussein -- and if left in power much longer, he could make a run at surpassing him.

If ever there was a visualization of the old Actonian saw, "absolute power corrupts absolutely," it is this government. Run into ruin by Republicans in charge of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, with barely a whimper from the opposition, this sad state of affairs doesn't just reflect badly on Republicans, but it reflects badly on Americans. History will determine that this period of lunacy was more dangerous for the way laws were played fast and loose with, rather than the tipping point of terror attacks.

Many months ago, as the torture bill was being discussed, I posted a series of quotes from perhaps the greatest movie of all time, A Man For All Seasons (if you get HDNet on Dish, you can see this in rotation this month, along with Judgement At Nuremberg).

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

I don't think Robert Bolt ever anticipated that the Devil would actually be the one to cut down the laws, however.

Which is why it becomes imperative to garner as many votes to move Congress to Democratic control as possible. It's a Hobson's choice, to be sure, the lesser of two poisons, but it is the ONLY choice right now, to hope that once in power, the Democrats will take a close, long look at the abuses of power that have occured over the past six years of unfettered tyranny, and put a stop to them and to bring the evil-doers to justice.

Cheney has long had a free hand to deal with governance as he sees fit, unsupervised and unaccountable to even Congress, which has rubber stamped just about everything he's proposed. Even the staunchest conservative Republicans ought to see that this is a horrible situation, that without any dissent, we may as well just close up shop as a democracy and move directly into an imperialist oligarchy.

Cheney and Bush MUST be held to account for their actions (and inactions) since January 2001, and if found guilty, punished with the full weight of the law. They hold a fiduciary responsibility not to their party, not to their contributors, not to their cronies, but to the people of the United States, to the Constitution of the United States, and to the future of the United States. I fear these priorities were lost on these men once the Supreme Court selected them in 2000.

Dogg is right: these are war crimes that have been committed, and I'd go one step further and claim that it was deliberate and intentional genocide, to wipe out the Iraqi people by fomenting a civil war, that there was never in anyone's mind any serious thought that we'd be greeted with "flowers and candy," but that we'd get what we have, an opening to invade the Middle East without actually invading it. This administration, this "Project For A New American Century" is far too cold and cynical and calculating for anyone to believe this was an accident.

"Genocide." "America." I would never in a hundred years imagine that those two words could even be remotely connected, and yet, here we are, if only for a semantic quibble, committing genocide.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing